Tag Archives: economy

Bob Greene has hit on what has to be one of the most poignant snapshots of how the current economic disaster has impacted the segment of our population who shouldn’t have to endure this mess we find ourselves. Americans who endured the Great Depression and World War II are once again facing the prospect of financial ruin, only this time, they don’t have time or earning power to regain their nest eggs.

All of you in Washington, Wall Street and around the country, I hope you read this piece and repudiate your feeble attempts at rationalizing your greed and malfeasance.

You have to love the Republicans as they continue to demonstrate a complete break with reality and to lie in the very face of the American people. I think it’s important to remind the GOP, the party of FAIL, that bipartisanship does not mean that the current Administration has to concede to your prescription for recovery. Frankly, not a single one of you has the authority to speak on fixing the economy that your President allowed to break. It was under W.’s watch that the American economy is in the toilet as well as that of the rest of the world. How can you actually say with a straight face that you know better when you failed to know better for the last eight years.

Lest your conservatives forget, your party was guilty of so many wrongs during the G.W. Bush era, not the least of which was disregarding the Democratic party on virtually every crucial issue faced. The GOP is the least likely to own the “bipartisan” label and it’s disingenuous to suggest otherwise. Face it, Republicans, you dropped the ball and now you’re crying sour grapes because you’ve been relegated to the sidelines.

As has been stated time and again (including in this blog): if your sole intent is to see the President fail, you want the country to fail. And if you want the country to fail, you are committing what is tantamount to treason. So, Grand Old Party, why don’t you do the right thing for once and get behind the man in the White House even if you don’t subscribe to his politics. The economic recovery is not a political issue – it’s a matter of our collective survival. You just better pray that Obama and his team can save us from a crisis you and your President caused.

As recently as January 26th, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was proclaiming following: “Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust, and job creation is strong.” A check of the site today revealed a different story, however. Go to the NRCC website and the only thing you’ll see is a survey asking readers to identify what concerns them most. One wonders what prompted them to lock down the site, perhaps to reveal a whole new set of questionable statements.

Despite President Obama’s attempt to bring some level of bipartisanship to the economic stimulus bill, the House Republicans held the party line and to a Representative, voted against it, bringing eleven Democrats along for the ride. While concerns about the staggering amount of spending are warranted, the GOP’s insistence on major tax cuts just shows how out of touch they are regarding the state of our economy. Business is not not going to get jump-started by reducing taxes; rather, an infusion of capital in the form of government grants and bank loans are what’s needed.

In the meantime, thanks to the Bush Administration’s wasteful spending of our tax dollars on an illegal war has redirected resources toward the critical needs of our infrastructure. Without an investment in those key areas, our very national security is at stake. Why not use the money we give to Washington to embark on those shovel-ready projects while at the same time employing those that suddenly find themselves on the unemployment lines? Seems it worked pretty well for a guy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, another Democrat who followed a failed Republican Administration.

Welcome to the New Deal 2.0 – and let’s wish all of us the same success the first one brought us. Without that FDR’s bold approach, we’d be a much weaker nation even today.

The challenges that the Obama Administration are facing are daunting enough, but the additional pressure of making significant progress in his first 100 days is probably something the new President really didn’t need. However, this is the hand he was dealt, so all we can do is to wish him and his team well and do our part when called upon to help.